I’m heading west starting tomorrow, visiting my mother and retrieving some stuff to get it out of her way.
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
I haven’t decided that the latest committee hearing (the evening of July 21st) is particularly newsworthy so, for now, I’m not including anything about it. It’s entirely possible somebody will change my mind.
Of, I think, greater significance is the matter of the Secret Service deleting text messages.[1] It is highly plausible and probable that these cannot be recovered.[2] The obvious question will be if this was as innocent as the Secret Service claims.[3]
Something’s off about these reports that “the Secret Service” has obtained private outside counsel. I don’t think a government agency can get outside counsel. Only individuals can do that. perhaps sometimes to litigate a specific issue but not to defend in criminal probe.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 21, 2022
I saw a tweet referring to the report that Josh Marshall refers to and, yeah, I had the same question. If you follow the replies, Brian Beutler suggests:
I imagine USSS brought on advisers/counsel *from outside* to help them deal with this and something got lost in translation?
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) July 21, 2022
I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this is the case. But it does seem like somebody might be rattled.
Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, “Secret Service cannot recover texts; no new details for Jan. 6 committee,” Washington Post, July 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/secret-service-texts/
Kim Zetter, “Is the Secret Service’s Claim About Erased Text Messages Plausible?” Zero Day, July 20, 2022, https://zetter.substack.com/p/is-the-secret-services-claim-about
- [1]Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, “Secret Service cannot recover texts; no new details for Jan. 6 committee,” Washington Post, July 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/secret-service-texts/↩
- [2]Kim Zetter, “Is the Secret Service’s Claim About Erased Text Messages Plausible?” Zero Day, July 20, 2022, https://zetter.substack.com/p/is-the-secret-services-claim-about↩
- [3]Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, “Secret Service cannot recover texts; no new details for Jan. 6 committee,” Washington Post, July 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/secret-service-texts/; Kim Zetter, “Is the Secret Service’s Claim About Erased Text Messages Plausible?” Zero Day, July 20, 2022, https://zetter.substack.com/p/is-the-secret-services-claim-about↩